Michael McLaughlin

Michael McLaughlin (also known as Michael Walsh) was, for a time, a leading figure on the British far right.

Born in Liverpool, he was the son of an Irish republican and socialist who was a veteran of the International Brigades.^[1]

According to his blog, McLaughlin’s father was a good friend of Irish playwright Sean O’Casey, and shared battle experiences with war correspondent and international author, Ernest Hemingway. His mother corresponded with Dolores Ibárruri, (La Pasionaria) during the Spanish Civil War.^[2]

Joins British Movement

For a time McLaughlin worked as a milkman, and as a result he was known as "The Milkman" in right wing circles, where he was seen as a largely unassuming figure. His first involvement with politics came when he joined the British Movement in 1968.^[3]

McLaughlin became leader of the British Movement in 1975 when Colin Jordan abruptly resigned. Although initially seen as not being leadership material he soon gained publicity for the BM by leading the campaign to free Robert Relf, who at the time had considerable sympathy in sections of the press.^[4]

Moving the BM headquarters away from Jordan's base in Coventry to Shotton, Flintshire, he repositioned the BM as a party geared towards the young working classes and by 1979 had raised membership to around 3,000.^[5]

He was imprisoned by judge David Wyn Morgan in 1979 to six four-month prison sentences for publishing leaflets dealing with the British government’s foreign policy and immigration policies.^[6] The jail term did not affect his position as leader.

Demise of the British Movement

McLaughlin's leadership came under fire from deputy leader Ray Hill, who commanded the respect of the BM's large racist skinhead following and who was also working in secret for Searchlight magazine.

Hill accused McLaughlin of spending all his time in Wales and using the BM for his personal enrichment, causing splits to develop in the group. McLaughlin eventually expelled Hill but was served with a writ by the deputy leader. McLaughlin was forced to use BM funds to fight the case whilst Hill was able to call upon the expertise of his close associate Anthony Reed Herbert.^[7]

McLaughlin attempted to change the name of the group to the British Nationalist & Socialist Movement in order to convince the courts that the BM no longer existed, but the move failed and the case continued until finally Hill left to join the British National Party in 1982, taking more than half of the membership with him.^[8]

Devoid of much of its support and left in a precarious financial state, McLaughlin was forced to wind up the BM in 1983.

Post British Movement Activity

McLaughlin ran a series of army surplus, notably Rucksack n'Rifle in North Wales, which specialised in survivalism, during the late 1980s.^[9] He produced an occasional broadsheet newspaper Comment on political themes, although this has not appeared since the mid-1980s.^[10]

Later political writing

Sometime in the mid-2000s McLaughlin reappeared on the political scene using the name Michael Walsh-mcLaughlin, which he then shortened to Michael Walsh.^[11][12]

Using the name Michael Walsh, McLaughlin set up a copywriting company called “Michael Walsh Copywriting” based in Liverpool.^[13]

Also under that name, McLaughlin began writing intensely pro-Nazi and pro-Hitler articles for long-time neo-Nazi American activist Gerhard Lauck on the latter's website under the topic-heading “United Kingdom News Desk by Michael Walsh”.^[14]

He also writes an irregular column on the website of the Historical Review Press in Sussex, under the title "Contemporary Comments from the News Desk of Michael Walsh".^[15]

References

Bibliography

• R. Hill & A. Bell, The Other Face of Terror- Inside Europe’s Neo-Nazi Network, London: Collins, 1988